“Bullet Train,” a John Wick romp with Brad Pitt in the aisle seat, arrived in theaters with a $30.1 million opening weekend. That’s enough to top the domestic box office, but it’s an average result considering “Bullet Train’s” $90 million price tag and Pitt’s star power. The Sony Pictures release will need to maintain momentum in the coming weeks as it tries to break even or profit.
“A big movie like this with a lot of expectations should have had a stronger debut,” said Jeff Bock, senior media analyst at Exhibitor Relations. “However, there isn’t much competition in August, so ‘Bullet Train’ should have a good window to make its mark in the coming weeks.”
“Bullet Train” tries to prove that action that isn’t based on a well-known property can defy the odds and resonate with audiences. But part of the problem for the film is that the critics weren’t on board. Bullet Train received a mediocre 54% rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviewers accusing the film of being overly derivative. Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge was mixed about “Bullet Train”, writing that “neither the characters nor the film they inhabit are particularly deep”.
Bullet Train is directed by David Leitch, who was once Pitt’s understudy before going on to helm films like Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2. It centers on a hapless hitman whose mission to grab a suitcase full of cash on a high-speed train in Japan devolves into double crosses and brutal battles with an army of competing assassins, thieves and social misfits.
Universal and Amblin’s “Easter Sunday,” the weekend’s other big release, stumbled in its opening frame, earning a paltry $5.3 million for eighth place domestically. “Easter Sunday” stars stand-up comedian Joe Coy as an actor who attends his dysfunctional Filipino American family’s Easter celebration.
The good news for Universal and Amblin is that “Easter Sunday” was a modest bet at $17 million. Comedies, once a reliable draw, have struggled at the box office in recent years. In fact, “Easter Sunday” is the only comedy from a major studio to hit theaters this summer, a sign of how far the genre’s popularity has fallen.
“DC League of Super-Pets,” an animated offering from Warner Bros., took second place with $11.2 million. After two weeks, “Super-Pets” boasts a domestic gross of $45.1 million, a disappointing result considering its $90 million production budget. Under its new corporate owner, Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to shake up its cinematic universe of DC Comics characters, a change in course that led to the company’s controversial decision this week to scrap “Batgirl” after the film was completed. Instead of debuting on HBO Max as originally planned, or being retro-equipped for theatrical release, the film will now become a tax break.
Universal’s “Nope” was third with $8.5 million. That brings Jordan Peele’s convoluted UFO thriller to $97.9 million at the domestic box office, an impressive tally for a film that isn’t derived from some pre-existing piece of IP.
Disney and Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” and Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: Rise of Gru” rounded out the top five, earning $7.6 million and $7.1 million, respectively. That brings the MCU adventure’s US total to $316.1 million, while the “Damned Me” spinoff has already earned $334.6 million domestically.
In limited release, “Bodies Bodies Bodies” earned $226,526 on 6 screens in New York and Los Angeles for a $37,754 per screen average. The A24 horror film follows a group of wealthy 20-somethings at a whirlwind party at a remote family estate that turns into a scene of much bloodshed. The ensemble includes former “SNL” star Pete Davidson, “The Hate U Give’s” Amandla Stenberg and “Borat 2” breakout Maria Bakalova.
On a milestone, Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” has already overtaken “Titanic” as the seventh-biggest film at the domestic box office, earning $662 million in ticket sales. The sequel, now in its eleventh week, added $7 million to its total. The film is the highest-grossing release of Tom Cruise’s career and, thanks to a lucrative profit-sharing deal, could make him over $100 million richer.
The domestic box office has experienced an impressive recovery in recent months; it’s a revival fueled by successes like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Jurassic World Dominion.” The bad news for theaters is that “Bullet Train” is the last big-budget, major-studio movie this summer, and there will be a real desert when it comes to populist fare. Studio executives and theater owners say privately that there won’t be another hit until “Black Adam” is released on Oct. 21 or “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” debuts on Nov. 11. That’s a long time to wait, especially for an exhibition industry that is still trying to shake off the lingering impact of the shutdown due to COVID and reduced attendance.
“We have to manage expectations,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for ComScore. “The next three months will not be like the previous ones. It will be a long time before we get another blockbuster.”
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